Customer Reviews (1)

I couldn't put this book down!
I was a bit intimidated at first by this 3 volume set of books.I am glad I persevered past the first few pages, which to me were the most difficult because of the large amount of background history given and the language used.But, oh, what an interesting story and what life lessons it teaches!You don't find what's in this book in many a new book...the serious consequences of our actions.And if you love romance...this is the book for you.I couldn't put this book down! ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
"The finest historical novel our 20th century has yet produced; indeed it dwarfs most of the fiction of any kind that Europe has produced in the last twenty years."

-- Contemporary Movements in European Literature, edited by William Rose and J. Isaacs

"As a novel it must be ranked with the greatest the world knows today." -- Montreal Star

"Sigrid Undset's trilogy embodies more of life, seen understandingly and seriously... than any novel since Dostoievsky's Brothers Karamazov. It is also very probably the noblest work of fiction ever to have been inspired by the Catholic art of life." -- Commonweal

"No other novelist, past or present, has bodied forth the medieval world with such richness and fullness of indisputable genius.... One of the finest minds in European literature."

-- New York Herald Tribune

"This trilogy is the first great story founded upon the normal events of a normal woman's existence. It is as great and as rich, as simple and as profound, as such a story should be."

-- Ruth Suckow in the Des Moines Register ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

Be wary of the newer translations
This book is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever come across, but the new translations do not do it justice.I have an old, old, hardcover and the language flows wonderfully.I picked up a new edition paperback with an updated translation, and yes, it was boring!Very Boring!Be sure to get hold of an old translation is you really want to enjoy the book.

TIMELESS
VERY LONG TRIOLOGY BUT WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF READING.
WONDERFUL DESCRIPTIONS OF LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES YET EASY TO RELATE TO BECAUSE HUMAN NATURE IS SURPRISINGLY THE SAME IN THE 21ST CENTURY. ALL CHARACTERS ARE DRAWN IN A UNIQUE WAY UNTIL THEY BECOME LIKE OUR REAL ACQUAINTANCES.
IT IS OBVIOUS TO ME WHY THE AUTHOR WON THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE FOR WRITING THIS BRILLIANT BOOK.

A Work of Art Transcending Mortality Itself
I shall never forget the date and time in University when I asked my former Jesuit English Literature Professor - what was his favorite novel of all. When he replied, I grabbed a pen and asked him to spell it because it sounded like he sneezed. Seriously, though, it was this very book - or as he explained to me, far beyond what most books could teach and provide on virtually every level of being including the most asked question for humankind: Why must the good or even great souls suffer so much? At its core, this is a book about what many would rather not face - but if we could garner the courage to do so - our lives would be enhanced one hundredfold. Good vs. Evil. If you are struggling with it - try some spectacular company along the way. That's what won Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 as the first woman to do so - she braved the ultimate question and went so far as to provide the answer in the last paragraph of the novel. No coward soul was she...just like Kristin Lavransdatter.

Kristin Lavransdatter A Good Long Winter's Read
Many novels set in the Middle Ages happen to have a few people and a few human values in them.Authors dwell upon the trappings of the times, ensnaring their characters in endless descriptions of clothing and castles, until the stories read like a 6th Grade history text, in which a child hero takes the reader through the facts and figures of the era by recreating A Day in the Life of A Knight.Or a Monk.Or a Serf.
Then, there's Sigrid Undsett's `Kristin Lavransdatter,' written in the 1920s and winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature.This novel contains strong people with real attitudes, who happen to live in 14th Century Norway.Universal themes create a link between the Medieval era and modern times, the same way the motifsof `Romeo and Juliet,' or `Othello' link the Renaissance to the 21st Century.
The epic story (over 1100 pages) focuses on Kristin, the strong-willed and somewhat spoiled daughter of the knight, Lavran.Intelligent but impetuous, Kristin struggles through her teenage years, breaks an engagement to the embarrassment of her parents, and marries Erland, a man of whom they disapprove.
Kristin and Erland have a rocky, but at the same time joyous marriage.In some ways, he is a disappointing husband.He is a passionate lover, but cannot manage money or land, and has no common sense about people.Forced to become the brains of the family, Kristin constantly struggles between keeping her place as a woman, and managing finances and fields.
As her children grow up, Erland gets on the wrong side of national politics and plunges the family into poverty.She copes.Eventually he dies in a fight.She becomes a nun..
Sigrid Undsett takes Kristin through every phase of development, from a little girl terrified when she thinks she sees a forest nymph, to a teen refusing to see the wisdom in guidance her parents are trying to give her, to becoming a mother and understanding exactly what they meant, to making peace with herself at the end of her life.
More exciting, the author places other characters, Erland, Kristin's parents, her children, siblings, family priests, in-laws, and friends, in situations very similar to hers.But they have their own ways of reacting, depending on their temperaments and backgrounds.This creates layers and layers of human thought and action for a reader to compare and contrast in `Kristin Lavransdatter.'. Undsett also varies the pace of the book, balancing character action with contemplation.She holds the description of Kristin's surrounds to what she needs to drive plot and character, giving a picture of 14th Century material culture without excessive detail.She manages this in part because she grew up with an archaeologist father, who specialized in the Medieval Period.From early childhood she heard about artifacts of the Middle Ages and their uses.When she did her own research for `Kristin Lavransdatter,' she had long passed infatuation with castles, and could concentrate on the humanity of the knights living in them.
`Kristinlavransdatter' was written in Norwegian.The original English translation, also from the 1920s, imitated Medieval grammar and usage.The result was a dense and complex tangle of phrase, paragraph and sentence, which made the book difficult to read.
A translation finished this year by Albuquerque writer Tina Nunnally stripped away the faux Old English.Ms. Nunnally used simple, modern language with an occasional nod to earlier forms.
The combination of skillful author and sensitive translator makes `Kristin Lavransdatter' an attention-holding read despite its length.Students of human nature will love the story.So will people who like historical fiction.Young adults will identify with `Kristin Lavransdatter' as will their grandparents.

A Winter's Tale
Let me first quote:"The frost held on. In every byre in the parish the half-starved beasts bellowed dolefully with hunger and cold. Already the farmers were skimping and saving on their fodder, every straw they could.

There was little visiting around Yule this year; folks stayed quiet in their own little homes.

During Yuletide the cold grew greater-it was though each day was colder than the last.Scarce any one could call to mind so hard a winter-there came no more snow, not even up in the mountains; but the snow that had fallen at Clementsmass froze hard as stone.The sun shone from a clear sky, now the days began to grow lighter. At night the northern lights flickered and flamed above the range to the north-they flamed over half the heaven, but they brought no change of weather; now and again would come a cloudy day, and a little dry snow would sprinkle down-and then came clear weather again and biting cold. The Laagen muttered and gurgled sluggishly under its ice-bridges."

This is the world you shall enter when you embark upon the reading of Kristin Lavransdatter.This is but one of many densely textured and descriptive passages I could have chosen describing the atmosphere of Fourteenth Century Norway. You may find yourself involuntarily reaching for a blanket, even if you are reading it in The Summer on a beach in The Bahamas, so well does Undset immerse us in her world.

Then, there is the plot.At first glance, it seems rather pat: Lovely girl repudiates kind, loving father's wishes to run off with dashing young rake etc etc-But it is not so.Erland,for instance, said "dashing young rake," is no mere "dashing young rake."-As the tale wears on, all these characters are fully threshed out in all their dimensions, capable of love, hate, suffering, compassion, vengeance, forgiveness - as human beings, one might say.

Then, there is the language, which I love in my translation.You may find yourself at least thinking to yourself-if not actually speaking- in a new/old manner, using what seems an archaic form of speech but which effectively conveys the feudal era in which it is set. - Belike I trow you shall.

The only works that I can think of to compare this one with are Tolstoy's War And Peace, that "great swath of life" as he called it, refusing to let it be categorised as a "novel," per se.-He called Anna Karenina the only "novel" he had written,-And Ross Lockridge's much-neglected Raintree County. Indeed, I would recommend it to all those who profited from this work.

Let me end with a quote:"The life of the body was tainted with unrest beyond all cure; in the world where men mixed, begot new generations, were driven together by fleshly love, and loved their own flesh, there came heart-ache and broken hopes, as surely as rime comes in Autumn; both life and death sundered friends at last, as surely as winter parts the tree from its leaves."

It is because of the multitude of passages like the one above, and how richly they are borne out in the telling, that I have not one qualm about calling Kristin Lavransdatter a masterpiece.
... Read more

Product Description
The second novel in the Norwegian Master of Hestviken four-book series taking place during the medieval period, deals with the protagonist, Olav Audunsson's life as Master of Hestviken, his leaving home to fight the Danes, and the death of his wife, Ingunn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Emotional follow-up to "The Axe"
At times this story is quite heavy with emotion, however the characters are so well developed, by the end of the book you feel as if they are a part of you. the authors chooses a very interesting time in Noway's history to set her story.Viking traditions now being governed by Christian ethics.Fascinating and very well written with historical accuracy.

The story continues
In the second book of the Master of Hestvicken series Olav & Ingunn are home together at last on Olav's family manor at Hestvicken. Their life together is not a happy one however due to Ingunn's ill health and Olav's heavy sense of guilt.

This is a beautiful Norse saga in spite of the depression of the main characters, the attention to historical detail is wonderful. Readers of "Kristen Lavransdatter" will enjoy the chance encounter in the Snake Pit between Olav and Lavrans Bjorgulfsson and his wife Ragnfrid. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Board a time machine
This book transports one back to Medieval Norway so successfully that it is almost effortless.The tale is an epic but the boundaries are always human and defined within the scope of that enclosed society.Despite the centuries separating the book with the current era, the same problems, relationships, loves, hates, worries, guilt and religious devoltion are present.

Incredible writing and kudos to the translation.

Extraordinary depiction of human guilt and consequences
This book, along with author's Kristin Lavransdatter, I believe to be the two most outstanding novels ever written. Though cast in late medieval Norway, they portray timeless relationships between men and women, guilt and punishment, historical perspective and profound understanding of human nature. Simply the best. ... Read more

Product Description
In the concluding volume of The Master of Hestviken epic, Sigrid Undset combines an astonishing fidelity to the landscape, culture, and mores of thirteeth-century Norway with a timeless insight into the labyrinths of passion and bitterness, guilt and faith. As a young man, Olav Audunsson committed two murders for love. Now he has outlived his enemies and the woman he killed for. But in the last years of his life, Olav must watch his grown children - and particularly his rebellious son Eirik - reenact the sins of his youth, with even more fearful consequences. Author: Sigrid UndsetPages: 288, PaperbackPublisher: Random HouseISBN: 0-679-75552-7 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Breathtaking.
Sigrid Undset's writing has an incredible gift for transporting her readers back to Medieval Norway; at times I felt as if I was a daughter of Vikings, gazing over the fjords and breathing the salty sea-air.

Parts of this concluding book to the saga-like Tetralogy make me laugh, and other parts brought tears to my eyes.One of my very favorite scenes, when Eirik says his vows before entering the monastery, was deeply moving to me.The imagery is remarkable, as is the revealed inner thoughts of the incredibly well-developed characters.

I have read only eight of Undset's books, but I believe that every page that I've read has touched my heart.Her ability to see the "big picture" is truly remarkable.

Life goes on
Olav is old now, and the focus in this last volume of the "Master of Hestvicken" is on the lives of his children.The characters in Sigrid Undset's books come through as very real, long as this whole series was, I wished it would keep on going so I could see what happens to Cecilia & Aslak.

Really great historical fiction.

The conclusion of a truly magnificent tale
Following "The Axe", "The Snake Pit" and "In the Wilderness", this is the concluding volume of Sigrid Undset'sgreat novel "The Master of Hestviken". Since the story is so intricate and full of detail, I would strongly advise not to read this book by its own since the reader might become confused and would not truly appreciate this magnificent tale. Although, unfortunately, the story is not available in one volume, all four books are certainly worth the money they cost. Moreover, each volume has a beautiful cover depicting scenes from the novel.

The story takes place in medieval Norway, a land torn by unremitting warfare and not yet fully converted to Christianity. The first three books tell the story of Olav Audunsson, who, after killing a man at a very young age, becomes an outlaw. As a consequence, he has to endure a long and bitter separation from Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, his childhood sweetheart, before they are finally able to marry. However, their new life is tainted by Olav's past and by the fact that Ingunn has brought shame upon herself. Although Olav once again becomes a man of wealth and stature, he is haunted by his past deeds and cannot find true happiness. Having lost his wife and being estranged from his son, Olaf leaves Hestviken and embarks on a journey of adventure and remorse which will finally lead him to a bloody reckoning.

In this concluding volume, Olav is no longer a young man. He has outlived his enemies and the woman he once loved so deeply. Now, in his twilight years and foreseeing the fearful consequences of their action,Olav is forced to watch his children, and especially his rebellious oldest son Eirik, reenact the sins for which he himself suffered so greatly as a youth.

The author's prose is so incredibly beautiful and the story is so rich in historical detail that it reminds one of the great Norwegian Sagas. It takes the reader back to a time when violence and bloody vendettas racked a land not yet fully touched by Christianity.The author depicts strong characters driven by passion and a desire for revenge who seldom find true peace and happiness. Written between 1925 and 1927 by a woman, this novel was truly ahead of its time. ... Read more

Product Description
Part two is the story of Kristin's fifteen years of troubled married life on the great estate of Husaby. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Beautifully captures the spirit fo the middle ages
This second volume of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy beautifully captures the spirit of the times - there are many moving moments in this book - the tender scenes between Kristin and her father and the moving account of her father's death and, of course, the complex relationship existing between Kristin and her husband.This is marvelous stuff which takes you back to a faith filled time.

no title
Not as good as the first volume.Beginning was horribly slow, but it picked up nicely in the last third or so.But you must read this one if you intend to do the whole trilogy, which is five star, all the way.Gripping and fascinating tale.

One of the best books I ever read
I found an ancient copy of this book on my shelf that had been my father's. It actually fell apart by the time I finished reading it.The translation was very hard to read but it made me read everything thoroughly to understand what was going on.The prose made me feel as though I was acutally living during the 1300's.My emotions went all over the place and I could really identify with Kristen.Life at that time was so fragile and I found the characters amazingly positive and uplifting most of the time in spite of all the trials and tribulations that were experienced.Kristen's love for Erland was remarkable and seldom wavered in spite of the fact that he had glaring flaws that she could see. The tragedy is hard to match but I found I couldn't put the book down.Coming from a Nordic background helped me appreciate what my ancestors probably experienced in such a harsh world.I am looking forward to reading Sigrid Undset's other books.

This book will stay with me the rest of my life.
Please don't read this book without having read The Bridal Wreath first,you must have the foundation laid before you can appreciate Kristin and herfamily and her life.This book tugged at me so emotionally that to thisday I still feel her feelings, I still get upset and her and Erlend.It iswell written and not only does it explain life has it may have been at thattime, it still has a ring of now, even though it was written in 1928.Butabove-all it captures and sends you to a world you will want to be a partof forever.DO NOT MISS THESE BOOKS!

An enlightening look at life in 14th century Norway...
Though the political details and language slowed me down at times, I foundit fascinating to learn what life was like for a woman in Norway in the1300's.The social, economic, and political aspects of the time areinterestingly and thoroughly presented.I would suggest that not too manyyears go by between reading the books in the trilogy because you will havea greater appreciation for what is going on if you remember details fromthe previous books. ... Read more

Product Description
Translated from the Norwegian by Henriette C. K. Naeseth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great journalism
Return to the future,

Nobel laureate Sigrid Unset is best known for the Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy, written in the twenties. In 1940, when Germany invaded Norway, Unset fought in the resistance, andher son was killed doing the same. She fled to the United States, across Russia and Japan. Unset was a devotee of the Soviet revolution, and she expected to find proof for her devotion in Russia. This report of her trip is one of the best pieces of journalism of the twentieth century, plainly seen, plain spoken, brilliantly honest about what she saw. It could have been the model for Joseph Mitchell and the very best reporting of the New Yorker magazine. And it's a helluva story.
... Read more